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Time-Series Research in Psychotherapy

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Book cover Issues in Psychotherapy Research

Part of the book series: Applied Clinical Psychology ((NSSB))

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Abstract

Time-series methods continue to be an area of rapidly expanding research methodology in the psychotherapy field. Many significant developments in time-series methodology have occurred over the past 10 years. Developments in time-series methodology are worthy of close examination by individuals in the psychotherapy field for a number of reasons. To begin with, time-series research provides an important alternative to traditional large-n between-group designs in psychotherapy research. Frequent concerns have been raised over the efficacy of group designs in answering certain types of questions in therapeutic studies (Barlow, 1981; Bergin & Strupp, 1972; Hersen & Barlow, 1976; Kazdin, 1980; Kiesler, 1971; Kratochwill, 1978; Myers, 1979). Concerns have centered around five main areas: (1) ethical objections (e.g., withholding the treatment from a client who participates in a no-treatment control group), (2) practical problems in collecting large numbers of clients who are homogeneous with respect to some variable (e.g., type of disorder), (3) averaging results over a group so as to obscure individual response to treatment, (4) generality of the findings from a group study to individual clients, and (5) a focus on intersubject variability without adequate focus on intrasubject variability.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18015, USA

    Thomas R. Kratochwill

  2. School Psychology Program, Department of Educational Psychology, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA

    F. Charles Mace

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  1. Thomas R. Kratochwill
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Michel Hersen  & Larry Michelson  & 

  2. The Medical College of Pennsylvania at EPPI, 3300 Henry Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Alan S. Bellack

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Kratochwill, T.R., Mace, F.C. (1984). Time-Series Research in Psychotherapy. In: Hersen, M., Michelson, L., Bellack, A.S. (eds) Issues in Psychotherapy Research. Applied Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2283-0_6

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